1.8.14

So that was Season 7 of Criminal Minds. Lots of nonsense, plenty of terrible policing, and a few genuinely offensive episodes! Also, let's not forget that the actual Devil made an appearance, marking the second time he's dropped by the show!

I'm not here to talk about super-awkward appearances by malicious spirits, though - I'm here to judge the profiling content of a show purportedly about that!

This season Criminal Minds has 24 episodes. There was one two-parter, giving us a total of 23 gradable criminal investigations.

The total profiling score for the year was 43/230, or 18%. For those keeping track - yes, that's the lowest score a season of the show has ever received, which just goes to show how little effort the producers are putting in. I'm not saying the show is on auto-pilot, but there were two separate episodes (which aired back-to-back!) in which the team had no involvement in resolving the storyline. Whether we're talking about a boxer killing random people and then getting hospitalized, or a murderous dad falling into a punji trap, two times this year the score hovered around zero.

I was actually challenged in trying to come up with a 'best' episode this year, from a psychological standpoint, not because there wasn't an episode that dealt extensively with the use of psychology in criminal investigations, but because that episode, 'Foundation', didn't actually require that the team 'solve' anything. They had an escaped victim who knew everything, and a woman ready to accuse her father of mass murder, all that was required of them was some impromptu counseling to make the two characters comfortable enough to give them solid evidence. So I'll admit that having psychologists hanging around can absolutely be useful, so long as you already know who did it.

Next up is season 8! Who will replace Emily? Will Gubler direct another episode? We're surrounded by mysteries I can't wait to get to the bottom of! Which will require actually watching episodes! So I guess I'll go and do that!